Andrew Perry

Lowry Partners with Shedinburgh 2026

Lowry is delighted to be partnering with Shedinburgh this summer, an exciting initiative supporting some of the UK's most exciting theatre-makers to develop and showcase new work at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

As part of this year's programme, Lowry is one of four UK theatre partners supporting Shed Originals, a strand dedicated to developing ambitious new work in progress. Through the partnership, Lowry is producing two new productions: We Have Been Here For… by Ella Langley, directed by Georgia Murphy, and The Gap, a new North East folk musical by Victoria Gimby, Maria Crocker and Stuart Price.

Both projects will receive development support before heading to Edinburgh for a work-in-progress performance at Shedinburgh, Assembly Checkpoint, providing an opportunity to test ideas, connect with audiences and take the next steps in the life of the work.

Following their Edinburgh appearances, both productions will then transfer to Shedinburgh at the Young Vic this September, creating a further platform to share the work with London audiences, industry professionals and potential future partners.

If you're heading to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe this August, we'd highly recommend catching both shows.

About Shedinburgh

Shedinburgh is a new venue and producing initiative from Francesca Moody Productions presenting a curated programme of theatre, comedy and music from some of the UK's most exciting artists.

Launching at Assembly Checkpoint during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe before relocating to the Young Vic in September, Shedinburgh creates opportunities for artists to develop work, connect with audiences and build relationships with industry professionals across two of the UK's most important theatre contexts.

At the heart of the programme is Shed Originals, a script and performance development initiative supporting artists to create and test new work through paid development time, creative collaboration and public sharing opportunities.

For 2026, Lowry joins Abbey Theatre (Dublin), Theatr Clwyd (Flintshire) and Traverse Theatre (Edinburgh) as one of four lead theatre partners supporting the programme. Together, the partners are investing in the development of new work and creating opportunities for artists to share their ideas with audiences in both Edinburgh and London.

Find out more at: shedinburgh.com/about

PRODUCTIONS

The Gap

Book, Lyrics and original stories by Victoria Gimby
Music and Lyrics by Stuart Matthew Price
Dramaturgy, Direction and Development by Maria Crocker
Thursday 20 August: 11:30am

The Gap is a time-travelling love letter to the North East, inspired by the felling of the world-famous Sycamore Gap tree. Blending original stories, folklore, history, and imagined futures - from the Roman’s building Hadrian’s wall to the to the filming of Kevin Costner’s Robin Hood. It asks why the loss of a single tree felt so profound, and what it reveals about our connection to the past, to the future and to each other.

Book

This is a chance to see a new work-in-progress show from one of the most exciting writers from across the UK and Ireland, as part of our Shed Originals script development programme in partnership with The Lowry.

Cast

Dyd Winford

Credits include: Malcolm in Just For One Day (Shaftesbury Theatre, Old Vic, CAA Ed Mirvish Theatre), FT in Fat Tongue (Riverside Studios), Larry Walters in 42 Balloons (Workshop), Barry Bray in Sing Street (Workshop) and Frankie Epps in Parade (Frogmore Papermill)

Gráinne Kennedy

Gráinne is an actor and multi instrumentalist from the North West of Ireland. She graduated from the London School of Musical Theatre (LSMT) last year and is thrilled to be involved in the early stages of this special show. She recently performed in new Irish musical Daughters of Ceithleann and credits while training include Beth in Merrily We Roll Along, Alexandra in The Witches of Eastwick, Mock Turtle/Vocal Captain in Alice By Heart and Portia in The Merchant of Venice.

Maria Crocker (Director)

Maria is a working-class Northern theatre director based in the North East, specialising in new writing, musical theatre and adaptations. Maria trained through Headlong Origins and the National Theatre Studio, and is a recipient of the Michael Grandage Futures bursary. She was also runner-up for the RTST Sir Peter Hall Directing Award. Maria is the Hadestown associate director and recently directed the West End production.

Selected Directing Credits
The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, Growth, Found (Northern Stage); Dogs on the Metro, My Door, Amai Vangu (Live Theatre); Into the Woods (Customs House); Spring Awakening (Middlesbrough Town Hall); Scarborough Porpoise (Pilot Theatre); Chicago (The Exchange); Assassins (Mountview); Pronoun (ALRA); One Last Waltz (UK Tour); Bonenkai, The Man Who… (The Letter Room/ARC Stockton).

Associate, Assistant & Resident Director Credits
Hadestown (West End – Revival Director); Hadestown (National Theatre); Local Hero (Edinburgh Lyceum/Old Vic); Mood Music (Old Vic); Unprecedented, Meek, Pinocchio (Headlong); Animal Farm, Catch-22 (Northern Stage); The Gamblers (Dundee Rep)

Phil Corbitt

Theatre includes: Sunny Afternoon (National Tour), Kinky Boots, (Storyhouse Theatre), Mamma Mia (National and International Tour), Calendar Girls, (National tour), Bright Lights over Bentilee (Claybody Theatre) The Tempest, Hamlet, The Canterbury Tales, Wars of the Roses and The Bells (Northern Broadsides), The Tempest (Northern Broadsides tour, Beijing and Shanghai), Round the Garden (Malaysia), The Murder of Sherlock Holmes (Europe Tour), A Streetcar Named Desire (Europe, Hong Kong, Japan Tours), Sweet Charity (Frankfurt), Calendar Girls The Musical (UK Tour), Electric Lipstick (UK Tour), Return to the Forbidden Planet (West End & UK Tour), Much Ado About Nothing (UK Tour), Ladies’ Night (UK Tour), Twelfth Night (UK Tour), The Secret Agent, for which he was also composer (UK Tour), Manifesto for a New City (Northern Stage), Rendezvous, Tyne, Alan Plater’s last play, Looking For Buddy (Live Theatre, Newcastle and Octagon Theatre Bolton), Close the Coalhouse Door, Brassed Off, Wake Up Little Suzie, Good Golly Miss Molly (Oldham Coliseum), Eight Miles High (Bolton Octagon), Carmen (Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough), The Firework Maker’s Daughter, The Hired Man, Speed-The-Plow, The Good Companions (Keswick), Hamlet (Bristol Old Vic), Bouncers, Don Giovanni, From A Jack to A King (New Vic Stoke), Tears of a Clown, Macbeth, The Norman Conquests (Harrogate), Geordie the Musical ( Customs house / Tyne Theatre )A Family Affair (Contact, Manchester), An Enemy of the People (West End) and World Story Time (Theatre Royal Stratford East) Cinderella, Jack and the Beanstalk, Aladdin (Everyman Theatre, Liverpool) and over 20 pantomimes for Qdos/ Crossroads.

Television includes: Undercover, Creeped Out, Inspector George Gently, All at Sea, Vera, Emmerdale, Waterloo Road, Coronation Street, Doctors, Shameless, The Royal, The Royal Today, Dalziel and Pascoe, Mobile, Harry and The Cinder Path.

Film includes: Peterloo, Bliss and Almost Married.

Stefanie Cremona

Theatre credits: The Secret Garden (York Theatre Royal), Cinderella: A Fairytale (The Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh), A Toast Fae The Lassies, Sunshine on Leith, The 39 Steps (Pitlochry Festival Theatre), Grease (Pitlochry Festival Theatre, Blackpool Grand Theatre), Jack & The Beanstalk (Leeds City Varieties), A Christmas Carol, Cinderella (Dundee Rep), Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story (UK tour), Me and The Girls (UK tour).

Stephanie trained at Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts

Victoria Gimby (Writer)

Victoria Gimby is a director, writer and dramaturg, specialising in the development of new work. She trained at RADA (MA) and Mountview (BA). Work as Resident director includes Hadestown (Lyric theatre West End); International Associate on Sister Act (Dominion West End, UK tour, Hammersmith Apollo, German tour, Dutch tour); Rock of Ages (UK and European tour); Myth: The Rise and Fall of Orpheus (The Other Palace); and 27 The Musical (The Cockpit).

Work as Director includes Sunderland Empire’s yearly Pantomime for UK Productions (Peter Pan, Jack and the Beanstalk, Sleeping Beauty), Hangover Square (Hope theatre), A Good Panto Die Hard (Gilded Balloon); Beauty and the Beast (Bournemouth Pavilion); The Cereal Café (The Other Palace); Three Little Pigs (UK tour); Peter Pan (Chelmsford); Grimm Tales (Reading Rep); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (St Leonards Festiva)l; Butter (winner of Outstanding New Work Award at the Vaults); and News Revue. Victoria Gimby was movement director for UKIP! The Musical (The Stage ensemble Award) at Waterloo East and Edinburgh Festival.

Current writing projects include the stage adaptation of Extremely Loud and Incredibly ; comedy murder mystery, Dead Funny; and a musical adaptation of Frankenstein, which will be performed later in the year by British Youth Music Theatre. Previous writing includes The Grand Expedition for Gingerline; By Virtue Fall (LOST Theatre One Act Play Award) for Space Theatre; and A Little Bit of Dickens on UK tour. Short films include Forty and Stages. In 2020 she created a suite of postgraduate theatre-making courses for Leeds Conservatoire. She was also shortlisted for the Northern Writer of the Year Awards in 2018.

We Have Been Here For

By Ella Langley
Directed by Georgia Murphy
Friday 21st August 2026: 3.15pm

Three strangers. One billboard. Last one standing wins a home.

Inspired by a real 1980s endurance contest in which competitors lived on a billboard for months, We Have Been Here For… explores what happens when the search for a home becomes a public spectacle.

Set in the American rust belt, but resonating strongly with today’s housing crisis, the show asks how long people will hold on for the promise of securing a future.

Book

Cast

Charlie Ryan

Theatre credits include: Understudy Frank and Mike in Memory of Water (Bolton Octagon/Liverpool Everyman), Father & Fox in Hansel and Gretel (Oldham Theatre Workshop), Tim Allgood in Noises Off (Stephen Joseph Theatre), Baloo in The Jungle Book (Bolton Octagon), Porthos in The Three Musketeers (Worcester Rep), Understudy Seymour, Orin and Audrey in Little Shop of Horrors (Bolton Octagon/Hull Truck), Dad in Beauty and the Beast (Stephen Joseph Theatre), Harold Crompton in Spring & Port Wine (Bolton Octagon), Nurse Nellie Diggle in Robin Hood and the Babes in the Wood (Oldham Coliseum), Archie Goose in Mother Goose (Imagine Theatre), Tom in Beryl (Oldham Coliseum), Mr Darcy in Pride and (Quite A Lot) of Prejudice (Worcester Rep), Man in A Gloucestershire Midwinter (Everyman Theatre Cheltenham), Willem in Tales of Hans Christian Andersen (Hammerpuzzle Theatre Company), Salty in Teechers (Everyman Theatre Company), Geoffrey Ingram in A Taste of Honey (Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh), The Basted in King John (Hammerpuzzle Theatre Company).

TV & Film credits include: Brassic (Calamity Films), Odd Squad (BBC), Hollyoaks (Lime Pictures), Children’s Ward (ITV), Doctors (BBC), State of Play (BBC).

Lewys Taylor

Lewys trained in Actor-Musicianship at Rose Bruford College. Theatre credits include: Rumplestiltskin in Rumplestiltskin (Contact Theatre Manchester); Peter in Peter and The Wolf (UK Tour/National Theatre Festival); That Sketch Show (The Edge Manchester); Return to the Forbidden Planet (Upstairs at the Gatehouse).

Film Credits include: Kyle (lead) in No Intent (ImmersiveEye Ltd).

Voice Over credits include: HBO dramas Chernobyl and Jamestown, BBC series including Time and The Responder, and popular video games such as Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes. He has worked as the voice of Greggs, Audible narrator for the Joseph Knox Aiden Waits trilogy, and a regular performer in BBC Radio 4 dramas.

Lucy Kierl

Lucy is originally from Nottingham and trained at Rose Bruford on their BA (Hons) Actor-Musician course.

Theatre includes: MURDER FOR TWO (Chipping Norton Theatre/Stephen Joseph Theatre/Bolton Octagon & UK Tour), CHRISTMAS CAROL (Bolton Octagon), THE 39 STEPS (Stephen Joseph Theatre); Beatrice in MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING (Hope Mill/Shakespeare North Playhouse); THE COMEDY OF ERRORS (Colchester Mercury); Henri Baskerville in THE GREAT MURDER MYSTERY (The Lost Estate); A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM, MACBETH (UK tour/The Watermill); THE HIRED MAN (UK tour); THE TEMPEST, MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, SWALLOWS & AMAZONS (Storyhouse/Grosvenor Park Open Air Chester); Abigail Williams in THE CRUCIBLE (UK tour); A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC, FRANKENSTEIN, Juliet in ROMEO & JULIET (The Watermill).